A Good Day at the Office.

It seems that reports of the demise of our title hopes have been greatly exaggerated. Arsenal took tentatively to the field and grew in confidence to such degree that having beaten Hull three – nil they strode off like Lions.

There was a new determination yesterday, the vacuum left by the absence of the Fabregas/Van Persie axsis has been filled by the more gritty nature of Vermaelen and Arshavin and this is worth emphasising; they are the alpha males of the team now and their fighting spirit was permeating throughout the team. And as if that wasn’t good news enough there was a punch up on the pitch as well.

Nasri trod on one of the Hull players feet, which looked as if the Hull player just fell over at the time, and then it all kicked off with Song weighing in and I suddenly had the thought that I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him in a dark ally. The Referee and linesmen went into a huddle and I feared the worse: a red card was surely on it’s way but luckily only a yellow appeared and up stepped Denilson, everyone’s new best friend, and scored a free kick with Brazilian aplomb.

This changed everything, gone was the early nervousness and on came a very determined second half, which was only interrupted by the referee awarding Hull a penalty for some mysterious shirt pulling, the Rum was going down a treat on this freezing afternoon and all around me went mad with joy as Almunia saved.

Big Al’s heroics kick started us back into action and it didn’t take long until we were able to sit back and roast chestnuts in the warm glow of a two nil cushion. Some superb work by Diaby on the left to then cut it back for Eduardo to score one of his trade mark tap ins. Diaby was going from strength to strength now and crowned a fine afternoon’s work off with a powerful goal of his own, this was the cue to try and increase the confidence in the rest of those lacking in it on the bench: enter Walcott and Ramsey, although the Welshman doesn’t need his confidence increasing he just needs more games.

All in all, a great afternoon, I mean, what could be sweeter than rubbing Phil Browns nose in it? Oh yes, I know, Mark Hughs getting the sack. Lol

Players ratings.

Almunia: come on admit it, you forgave him for a minute when he saved the penalty that kept us in the game. If Hull had scored they would have put eleven men behind the ball and wasted time to such an extent that your hatred of Phil Brown would have reached a level that you would have wanted to see him tortured before he was put down. Well, done Big Al. 7.5

Eboue: everybody’s favourite back up, gave Sagna an opportunity to recharge his batteries, kept his diving down to a minimum and gave a classy display in just how to play against one of the lesser teams. What are we going to do if someone comes in and actually wants to buy him? 8

Gallas: never made a single mistake, still so obviously loving playing along side Vermaelen which is making even more sense now we can look objectively at Kolo’s scatter brained work up norf. 9

Vermaelen: you just know that when the ball breaks and he is chasing side by side with an attacker there is only going to be one winner. His aggression and determination have been badly missed in the Passenal of recent seasons. I wonder if he has any brothers or cousins, a team just can’t have too many Vermaelens. 9

Silvestre: some wise sage has been battling over recent months to try and explain that Mikael is an inexpensive piece of insurance taken out by Wenger on the off chance that three left backs get injured, hhhhhmmm, who was that? Considering he has only played three games at left back in as many season he is doing fine and was better today than he was in the week. Keep it up Mikael 7.5

Denilson: you just know that the Lefties had a collective orgasm when he scored his goal. We have a new free kick taker and superbly taken it was as well; his confidence soared after scoring and had one of the best games of his career at Arsenal to date. 8

Song: he is realising that he is one big tough Cookie. I hope they make him captain for Camaroon in the up and coming ACoN, the only thing he is missing from his game is leadership quality. 8

Nasri: this man does not like travelling but put him in the Emirates and he is a different person. Freed from the powerful influence of Fabregas, the now fit Nasri went about running the creative part of the midfield with Galic flair and determination. 8

Diaby: someone else, who, being free of the powerful influence of Fabregas was able to express himself, safe in the knowledge that Denilson and Song had his back covered he was able to power forward playing the one role he is suited to and a very good goal to boot. 7.5

Arshavin: our new centre forward may not be too much of a threat in the air to most defenders but you can see that they are having a hard time dealing with him on the deck; worked hard and his winning mentality is starting to rub off. 7.5

Eduardo: slowly coming back to life, it’s all about goals with him and his important second goal of the afternoon lifted not only him but the whole team. 7

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Brown said: “I have got genuine players. They are solidly behind the campaign at Hull. Richard Garcia is an honest lad. If Nasri gets booked, why did he get booked? I need to know that one.
“If it is an off-the-ball incident, having given a free-kick, I cannot see any reason for him going and stamping on Richard. He doesn’t go down easily. He is a proper man.”

london did you see songs tackle on geovanni?? i think it was just after the pen save and geo was through on big al and song hunted him down and got the ball from behind..it was a wonderful peace of defensive work..its hard to win the ball in that situation cos of fear of the refs whistle but song made it look like an art…

ades on 150k a week…whos going to pay that for him?? he now has a global reputation as a lazy trouble maker..hes done it at everyclub hes been at and now he has done it to two PL clubs so everyones fugured him out…

i was reading through the mancity blogs with ave the other night and theyve worked him out already…the comments about him were identical to those on the arsenal blogs last year…

Two Coppa Italias and then three Leagues with Inter – One when they finished third (default), one when the rest were in Serie B, the other without a challenge from Juventus and Ac Milan were rebuilding.

Pleased to see my master plan has worked. I’ve slagged off Almunia, Diaby and Sylvestre off so much, they finally got pissed with me and all played exceptionally well yesterday 😉 Credit to all of them.

yes you seemed to have finally got through to them all…but it was hull we were playing..did you expect anything less??

depending on our injury situation i think we can bring villa back to earth..their form against the top sides has been impressive but i dont think they have can play their expansive game without conceeding against us…

Its a shame Nik won’t be back for Villa. Does anyoine know when Clichy is likely to return. Sylvestre played well yesterday but will always get found out when up against pace – and Villa have plenty of that!

Thanks for the post London, I had the title but I never saw the game properly.. 😦

I have read your piece Irish and as always it is very good.
But I think you are mis-reading what we are saying about Theo.
We would love for him to come good the lol was not laughing at him it was an ironic lol.. him falling over sums him up.
As much as you love a player or a person the facts are he is affecting Arsenal’s chances of winning anything, along with a few others. He is one of our highest paid players and I think to command that sort of money, a goal assist against Liverpool and two goals against Birmingham 2 years ago isn’t good enough.
Theo has no natural ball control he takes too many touches to bring it under control, he has to try to rebound the ball into a safe area normally behind him to keep it away from his defender.
When Greece and Spain won the Euro’s they do it as a team all the players playing similar styles. Theo doesn’t fit in with Arsenals style of play.

What is the point of having wingers when we don’t head the ball? playing the ball along the ground is an invitation for defenders to clear it.

We don’t play that direct, we play one two’s involving 3 or 4 players to get to goal. If you want route one sign the best players to do that Lennon/Crouch. or similar combinations.

The only time Theo would be effective is if we sat back in our own half and sucked the play in then theo could break. but we would need another Theo to be on the end of his crosses.

All teams play the get the ball out to wingers and hoof it in style, but they pay far more money for there players than we do and we score more goals, so I would say that our system of walking it in the net athough frustrating works very well.
What we are lacking is a Pires type wide player and I hope Rosicky can be the player he should be for us. and the irreplaceable DB10. But some things are not to be so to play the Wengerball way other and all players need to be techniical.

Also I got a caning on the same site as you did when I suggested Eboue was better for Arsenal than Theo, I thought he played better with Hleb, Flamini, Rosicky and Cesc.. So I do know what it’s like, but the difference on here is we will also say when a player does well like Diaby did yesterday (not as a defensive miidfieder though).
The comments are also said during a match when emotions are running high and I get into the game as if I was standing on the terraces again, we all used to laugh at Nial Quinn when he played, but we still loved him.

I do hope Theo makes it but he needs to start making it quick. I’m hoping our Russian can teach him a thing or two – I would say he should watch tapes of Henry at his best but we want him playing the ball with his feet not his hands …. see I’m over it, see how I joke about it now!!!! 👿

Ha ha joking, I must be off to bed, catch up on the sleep I didn’t get last night, I’ve been up since 4am – lucky Arsenal won eh!!! 😀

Only Ferguson has a real meaning and he is a moany old alcee. Ancelotti seems like a nice chap bless him, was nice at Milan anyway – did a fine job there for the most part but never had the money/youth to win the league.

I know they’re in a dodgy situation, but their reputation and history carries a lot of weight. Torres’ scoring record for them is phenomenal (and he was probably nursing injury for a lot of games) If he played for us, we’d be unstoppable….

It’s interesting about Torres, I agree that there would be no reason for him to stay if Liverpool failed to qualify for Europe and he would certainly go if Benitez went…but who would he go to? It can’t be Real or Barça as they both have strikers, Milan maybe or how about a spell in London Fernando? Damn it I just realised who I had forgotten.

Torres and Gerrard must be worth in excess of £80m combined if one of the ‘big’ clubs are interested them – that would pay Raffa off 😛

I’m sure Hicks and Gillette can find buyers in the middle east if they choose, but there will be resistance at the club against that form of ownership. Rather like us, they’d rather have yanks than arabs or russians I guess.

The only ones left with money are in Abu Dhaby and they already have Man City.. Dubai has collapsed financially there economy is knackered so I doubt if any buisnesses there are in any position to buy a football club.

It appears then that the only big money left in football comes from TV rights. Although Setanta went bust, I can’t see Sky going the same way – which I suppose means that the power lies in the hands of the media – Murdoch owns us all 😦 😦

and if the Dippers don’t play in Europe the fans won’t be able to break into the players houses when they are away and steal there medals and jewelery, therefore the fans won’t be able to afford to go to games..

Rasp, I have been through every one of my comments and I cannot find this. I was a bit worried at first because of my heightend state of merriment when I got home from the game but I noticed that Ave caught the brunt of that. Which comment were you refering to?

ive been reading arse.com today and wenger is paying tribute to diaby saying he aint a defensive player or a holding player..hes a direct attacking player who likes to dribble..

sort of the same thing weve all been saying for over a year…so why has wenger been playing him out of position as a midfielder for the last god knows how long asking him to do defensive duties when he knows hes an attacker..

its like telling robin to play in front of the back four and then scratching your head as to why hes so shit…

Hi rico, yeah, beat the Villa good and proper and we open a little gap up below us – it will be very hard, but Cesc should be back and if Diaby plays as well as he did in the second half against Hull, we may just get a great result..

The Hull game, second half I mean, was the best I have seen Diaby play in a long while..